'They talk about me like a dog'

MILWAUKEE — Two years after appearing here on Labor Day to kick off the final stretch of his historic campaign, President Barack Obama returned Monday to speak to union members, in a starkly different political environment.

The Democrats, on the ascent at Obama’s 2008 Laborfest visit, are now unmistakably a party on defense.

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The president touched on his historic accomplishments — healthcare reform and new financial regulations — but spent more time discussing a new infrastructure plan and warning what a Republican victory would mean.

By rolling out a $50 billion transportation proposal two months before the midterm elections and twice mentioning statements from “the Republican who thinks he’s going to take over as speaker,” Obama testified to the straits Democrats now find themselves in: They urgently need to convince voters that they’re working to bolster the still-wobbly economy — and find a reason to give the electorate pause about voting for the GOP to register their anger about the status quo.

The planes, trains and automobiles idea — which White House aides admitted wouldn’t create jobs until 2011 — may win a fleeting headline, but with early voting starting later this month in some states, Democrats' window for persuasion is closing. Increasingly, voters’ minds are made up when it comes up to big-picture issues. That means Obama and the Democrats now must narrowcast their efforts by giving the faithful a reason to turn out, and by reminding the remaining undecided voters that, while they may be unhappy, the alternative is a return to what they repudiated in the last two election cycles.

“They’re betting that between now and November, you’re going to come down with amnesia,” the president said of the GOP. Wearing neither a jacket nor a tie, and with shirt sleeves rolled up, a feisty Obama sought to rev up a few thousand union members — the very voters he won two years ago, and whom Democrats need to show up at the polls in November to mitigate GOP gains.

He deployed many of his usual lines about how Republicans are to blame for the country’s economic problems, and singled out — without mentioning him by name — would-be House Speaker John Boehner.

The Ohio Republican, Obama said, had opposed Democratic efforts to provide state aid to save the jobs of public employees and the closing of a tax loophole that encouraged companies to send jobs overseas.

More telling, Obama offered an aside that spoke to his diminished state and captured the mood of a president and party under assault.

“They talk about me like a dog,” Obama said of his political opponents. “That’s not in my prepared remarks, but it’s true.”

Also true: Casting himself as taking a lot of flak in front of a supportive crowd could engender sympathy and fire up his lethargic, downcast base. Other speakers also alluded to the energy on the right and, implicitly, how the president has become a target of derision.

“They don’t like nothing about Barack Obama,” Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) told the audience, rattling off opposition to both his policies but also criticism of the redecoration of the Oval Office, the first couple’s outings and questions about the president’s place of birth.